FIC: Omissions of the Omen (Semi-Mature; 2,900 words)

[saeva.livejournal.com]

Omissions of the Omen
Cameron Mitchell has a problem; the problem is his wife doesn't know it.
Authors' Notes: Co-written with verstehen. Semi-mature. If you couldn't tell from the summary it has a het 'ship. No warnings.

>>>>
Cam Mitchell slid his hand under the edge of the red pillowcase as he heard footsteps in the front hall. He hadn't heard the click of the door as it'd opened and closed but then two seconds ago he'd been asleep. It was the sort of thing that was easy to miss when you were having creepy dreams about Mark IX bombs that didn't do shit against the enemy. And maybe he was being a little ridiculous sleeping with a gun under the pillow but between the month he'd just had, the creepy Prior dreams he couldn't shake, and reading the mission reports for all the previous SG-1 mission a little paranoia seemed in order.

It might be possible to be too cautious but he didn't want to go with that theory by not being worried at all.

The gun cocking seemed loud in the quiet of the night and he winced as his other hand quested out for something besides his briefs to be wearing if it was anyone that'd be truly embarrassing to chase out in just his underwear. He'd just about grabbed the jeans he'd discarded earlier before getting into bed when the door clicked open and he recognized the silhouette against the dim light left on in the hall.

"Damn it, honey, you couldn't call out to a guy?" he grumbled, clicking the safety back on the gun as he did and shoving it into the top bedside table drawer.

"And why should I? It's my house too," she said easily. "Cover your eyes, Cam, I need to turn on the light for a minute." She waited a few seconds for him to comply and then the light came on the bedroom.

Ignoring that, he tried to shake off the unease that had him pulling the gun in the first place as he peeked open his eyes and gave her a lazy smile. "I thought you weren't coming in until tomorrow afternoon? I was all set up to pick you up from the airport."

"I wanted to surprise you so I caught an early flight back. Who needs to spend a night in a hotel when I can spend fourteen hours sleeping on a plane?" He watched her, blinking a little against the light, as she stepped out of her black loafers and sighed, stretching. "How was Nevada?"

"Did you know Nevada's hot? I'm pretty sure they shoulda mentioned that in a brochure," he said her, his sleep-fogged mind grasping for where her own trip had been to. "Singapore?"

She glanced over her shoulder at him, her long, black hair swaying with the movement, before she raised one very effective eyebrow. "Is that a question of where or how, Cam?"

"Where," he admitted sheepishly, pushing himself up so he was leaning against the cool headboard. "Are you hungry?"

"I ate on the plane," she told him as she turned back to the mirror to take out her earrings and he watched her. They were the dangly gold ones he'd got her for last Christmas; or, more honestly, he'd picked out for her last Christmas from the hospital bed while he was recovering. Thank god for online shopping. "And Singapore was nice. I was thinking that maybe when we both have a chance to get a week off we should go on vacation there. David and I had some time off and went to this great little eatery that you'd love."

"I'm not entirely sure when my next leave will be, honey." Next came the simple gold necklace that her mother had given her when they'd gotten married. "But I'll keep it in mind. How were the talks?"

"Tiring," she told him, twisting around to smile at him again. "DBS had us tied up in jargon most of the meet. I swear half of it wasn't in English or any dialect of Chinese I know, and I don't read 'Fuckyouover'."

Cam laughed, enjoying the sight of her slowly stripping down out of her skirt. "Most people don't." He grinned. "But I know how you feel. I spent most of the last week speaking 'I'll Take It Up The Ass, Sir'."

She shimmied the rest of the way out of her skirt, laughing, and started on the buttons to her blouse. "I thought you said you liked your commanding officers."

"Well, I do. Mostly. My commanding officer's a great guy. It's his commanding officer's that are kinda the problem," he admitted, thinking about the order to use the Mark IX and the way no one else had seemed to be bothered by it. "I'm just hoping I won't have to go to Nevada again any time soon."

"I'm glad," she said, letting the blouse slide off her arms.

"You're glad?" He laughed. "Who's the one going out of the country twice a month? I had to marry a jetsetter," Cam teased, watching her fingers unsnap the back of her bra quickly as he took a sharp breath in.

"Nice try, 'Shaft'. *I* married the one gone for eight months a year on a deployment." She smirked at him, looking into the mirror as she moved to sit on the edge of the bed and roll off her hose.

It was a nice, familiar 'argument' and he grinned, leaning forward to snap the band of her panties. "Yeah, yeah. Well, that's over now. A couple of weeks a trip, tops."

"And if I get that promotion to partner." She swiped at his fingers. "I'll be travelling less too."

That sounded nice, for the both of them, and Cam leaned back against the headboard feeling pretty satisfied as she finished undressing down to just her black underwear. "It's working out here, then? I know you weren't sure about transferring to the Denver office."

"No, I've been settling in fine." She turned and crawled up the bed until she was on her side and leaning against him. "I was surprised; there's none of that annoying jockeying for position here."

"That's what I'm talking about." He grinned, kissing her temple as he slipped an arm around her. "I knew this move would be good for us, and not just to get outta the heat."

"I really can't wait for the snow, Shaft." She grinned up at him. "I plan on nailing you," she poked his forehead. "Right there with a snowball."

"Oh, yeah, you can try, but you don't got aim, honey."

She gave him a dirty look before sliding down into the bed, yawning, until she was resting her cheek on his thigh. "How would you know? You haven't seen my arm."

Cam laughed, running his fingers through her fine hair while being careful of snagging it. "I think after ten years of marriage I'd know if you could throw; you're just not the type." He grinned.

"Shut up and go to sleep, Colonel Shaft," she ordered him pleasantly. "You're just digging the hole deeper."

"Yes, Ma'am. Wouldn't want to bury myself, ma'am." He mock saluted her before edging down in bed himself, careful of knocking into her too much. When all was done and settled she tucked her head underneath his chin and he smiled. It was great to have her home again.

It didn't take long for him to drift back to sleep with Julia spread out over him but it took even less time to wake up to the sound of his cellphone ringing. Or beeping. It beeped. Incessantly. Cam groaned, groping for the phone in the dim hope he could grab it before the beeping woke Julia up, but just as his fingers found the edge of the phone they pushed it right off the nightstand where it thudded onto the ground.

"Tell them I'm taking the weekend," Julia mumbled and rolled over and away. Her cellphone beeped even more often than his did.

"I'm pretty sure that's mine, baby," he muttered, rolling onto his own stomach so that he could grab it, jabbing at the talk button as he did. "Mitchell."

"Mitchell? This is Daniel Jackson." His voice seemed tinny through the phone. Or maybe it was Cam's ears. "There's a problem at the SGC. Sam and I will be at your house in ten minutes to pick you up."

"What? What sort of p --" The phone clicked off and he realized he was speaking to dead air a second afterwards.

He groaned and rubbed his face with his free hand, tossing the cellphone back onto the nightstand. "Julia?" She muttered something low and, if the tone of her voice was any indication, unflattering in his direction, though since it was in Chinese he wasn't sure exactly what. "I have to go to the base, honey," he told her, getting out of bed and pulling clothes on. Neither one of them had bothered to turn off the light which made things easier.

She muttered something else in Chinese and he saw her eyes slit open for a minute, staring at him, before they slipped shut again. "Be quiet when you come back in," she told him, flopping over onto her stomach and spreading out on the mattress.

Yeah, that was his girl.

Holding back a jaw-breaker of a yawn until he was dressed and out of the bedroom, Cam checked the clock. Four minutes to spare. Enough time to grab a piece of toast or eat one of the leftover pieces of pizza he'd ordered for dinner. With a sigh he padded back towards the kitchen to search out the last of the Meat Lovers Supreme, wondering what could be going on now that he was being dragged out of bed at two a.m. to deal with it and what he was going to tell Julia when he got home.

The problem with the SGC is they didn't provide much in the way of cover stories, depending on their members to be creative enough to come up with something, and Cam just wasn't that creative. Especially not when it came to lying to his wife. In a lot of women's minds, lying meant cheating and Cam wasn't about to do one and really hated having to do the other.

But he wasn't about to disobey a direct order about international security either and so, as he picked a piece of pizza over from the mangy collection that was left, he tried to think of a cover story that would satisfy her.

'Night flight test malfunction' was about the best he could come up with. Maybe after some coffee and time away the brain cells would kick in.

Coffee. Damn, he didn't have time to make any coffee. In fact, they should be pulling into the driveway in a little under a minute and Cam trekked towards the front door, intending to cut them off before the knocking could wake Julia up. She had looked tired and waking her up again seemed sort of unnecessary to him.

He heard the sound of a car turning into the drive before he made it to the front door and the sound of the door opening. His brain was still on fuzzy and for a second he wondered what the hell Jackson was doing just walking into his house -- or even Sam -- but then he realized the door was the bedroom one and he glanced back at it to see Julia standing there, wrapped up in one of the silk robes she seemed to collect, blinking at him.

"I couldn't get back to sleep after all. I slept on the plane," she explained. "There's pizza?"

"Meat Lovers and hours old, honey. That'll be my ride." He nodded to the knocking that was just starting at the door.

"They sent a ride?" She sounded surprised and he realized that wasn't really out of line. Normally, he would have driven himself if it wasn't for Jackson saying that they were already on their way to pick him up.

"It's the other two consultants I work with," he explained feebly. "They got the call before I did and I'm on their way in."

"Really?" She smiled, her smile sleepy but interested, and if he could have afforded a groan right then he would have. She'd always been interested in meeting the people he worked with.

"Yep," he lied, like a rug, and ate the last bite of pizza as he headed to the door. Two steps out of the kitchen, he realized Julia was coming with him. He smiled at her and said, "Honey, why don't you take a book to bed? Didn't you say that you were tired?"

"It's just jet lag, Shaft. I'll be off kilter all weekend." She took his hand and continued to follow. "I want to meet the people you work with."

"Okay. But lay off the 'Shaft', will you? They just found out about that and if I thought the other pilots were bad... " Cam shook his head. Sam got it, at least, and one quiet mention of her callsign in return -- and he had to wonder exactly how much she'd pissed off her flight leader to get that one -- had stopped her cold, but Jackson and Teal'c still found it pretty amusing.

Julia gave him a shit-eating grin and didn't promise a thing.

Great, just brilliant. He rolled his eyes a little, but he squeezed her hand too as they approached the door. The knocking hadn't let up a bit. "Yo, you're going to wake the neighbors," he complained as he pulled the door open to find Jackson and Sam standing on the other side.

"The message was so short I wasn't sure you'd be awake," Sam said, letting her hand drop to her side. "Ready?"

Julia cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows, not letting go of Cam's hand at all.

"Oh, uh, hello." That was Jackson, who had his hands stuck in his pockets as he peered at the both of them.

"Hello," Julia said and Cam just knew she was smiling, he didn't even have to glance back at her to confirm it. "Do you have to go immediately or do you have time to come in for some coffee? You look like you could use it."

Sam and Jackson looked at each other briefly before Jackson shook his head. "I don't think so. We should probably get going."

Cam bit the bullet. "Honey, this is Lt. Col. Samantha Carter and Dr. Daniel Jackson. Guys, this is my wife, Julia."

And then he watched as Sam and Jackson exchanged another look, making identical mouthings of the word 'Wife?' at each other, like that was who they should be asking. No wonder General O'Neill's reports referred to them as a Bobbsey Twins.

Julia caught the look as well and looked amused as she held out a hand for both of them to shake. "I know, I know. It's hard to believe he wasn't... Shafted, isn't it?"

Okay. So, he was never gonna live this down. He could deal with it. "Now you see why I didn't wanna introduce her." Cam still kissed the top of her head though as he grabbed for his jacket. "Come on. We gotta see what went wrong with that test."

"Do you think you'll be done by morning?" Julia asked, stepping away and letting him out the door.

"We're not sure exactly what's happened yet," Sam explained and if anything told Cam they were probably going to end up on lockdown, it was Sam admitted 'I don't know.'

"I'll give you a call as soon as I can, honey."

"Then I won't hold breakfast for you." She kissed him quickly and grabbed the doorknob in her hand.

"Thanks, that'll probably be best." He smiled at her and, since his reputation was shot anyway, gave her a longer kiss. Damn, he was gonna miss those nice hours in bed asleep with her. He just didn't sleep right when she was gone.

"Love you, Shaft," she said softly, just for his ears. "Be safe." Julia pulled back and smiled at the three of them standing there on the doorstep. "Nice meeting you both."

"Nice meeting you too," Sam said easily, with a grin. "Though I think we've met before. In Nevada."

Julia's face lit up and she nodded. "Now I know why you look so familiar! You visited him in the hospital." She paused and, with a quick grin at him, said: "You'll both have to come to dinner sometime."

"That sounds nice."

He was so fucked. Sideways. With a camshaft. Cam grinned though. "That sounds great, honey. Next Saturday, maybe? Jackson, you free?"

"I'm free." Jackson looked like he was holding back a grin of his own. "But we'd better go."

"Of course. We can make arrangements for it later," Julia said easily. "Get out of here, Shaft."

"Yes, ma'am." Then, like the chicken he was, he made his escape, snagging the door shut behind him as he urged the two of them towards the car. There weren't a lot of things in this world he was afraid of, though the list was growing every day he spent at Stargate Command, but his wife's curiosity was one of them. He just had to marry a lawyer; it was like preemptively self-defeating the idea of classified.

He was going to have to come up with better details to his cover story.<<<<

Thoughts? Comments? Feedback?

- Andrea.